How to Convert a Dress into a High-Low Tunic

Saint Patrick's Day is upon us, and I realized I have very little green in my wardrobe, which is unacceptable. I searched through three stores, not finding anything green that looked good on me, and finally found a cute green dress at the local thrift store in town, AND it was half off day, so the grand total for this dress? $2.50. Only, it was a bit. . . frumpy? Action had to be taken.

I decided to modernize it by making it into a high-low tunic. It was actually a lot easier than I was expecting and only took me about 30 minutes. I love any sort of thrift store find (half my wardrobe is from thrift stores or consignment shops), and I love all things upcycled and restyled.

Here's my tutorial, so you can try it too.

STEP ONE
First, put on your dress/skirt/extremely long shirt, whatever you are converting. Mark the length of the front hem with a pin exactly in the middle (I would actually use safety pins--one of mine fell out when I took off the dress). Do the same with the back. Obviously, the back is going to be anywhere from 3-4 inches longer to, well, as long as you want. Drama, baby.

Front pin (hard to see with that pattern, but it's there):

Back pin:

STEP TWO
Next, you're going to cut your hem. Remember to leave 1-2" of seam allowance.

To mark the hemline, lay the garment on its side, with the side seams matched up. This should leave your marking pins on the fold lines for the front and back.

Side seams matching and folded exactly along the front and back:

Draw your line for your hem (remember seam allowance). This is probably the trickiest bit. Remember you're going to want to hit the fold at a right angle so you don't create a point, and you're going to want most of the "high-low" movement to happen at the sides, leaving the front and back fairly level.

I used a white fabric pencil to mark my line:

I used a rotary cutter to make a smooth cut. Fabric scissors will do the same thing though. Cut through both layers of fabric at the same time. Once you've cut your line, try on the garment again before hemming, to make sure you like the line. I realized my cut wasn't curvy enough the first time, and cut a tiny bit more off, after I lined everything back up again.

My finished cut:

STEP THREE
Once I had my hem line like I liked it, it was time to iron the hem. Turn up however much you allowed, and iron. You're going to want to finesse this a bit--you've got some curves and that's always a bit tricky to get to iron flat, but most fabrics will adjust if you work them a bit.

Raw edge turned up:

Then turn the raw edge under again, making it meet the ironed fold and press.

Raw edge turned under again towards fold:

Once that's all done, stitch the hem down. You can use a machine or hand sew. I chose to hand-stitch my hem, but a machine will do the job just as well. Just make sure to ease as you go, since you're sewing curves here.

Hand stitching my hem down with matching thread:

Then wear your new tunic with pride! I love how mine turned out.

Also, one of my friends calls this hemline a mullet hem, and I'm pretty sure that wins the internet.

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Tatertots and Jello

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Inexpensive Organizing

This is Part 3 of my How I Organized My Entire House for $0.00 (Really!) series.
Part 1 (Intro) is here.
Part 2 (Simple Rules to Create Organization that Sustains Itself Plus Master Bath Organization) is here.

Some things I've learned for organizing on the cheap:

1. Organizing is about your life, not about how much money you spend (obvious, but it took me a little while to learn. I love pretty, fresh school supplies, um, I think I've mentioned my love of pretty containers, I love pretty interior design--all that generally costs money--even though I try to manage to spend as little money as possible). I used to want it to be pretty and perfect or not at all. It doesn't work that way. It can be pretty later. Right now, it just needs to be organized. In fact, it's better to see if what you come up with works, then buy whatever pretty things to put it in. That way you're not investing a money in a system that won't work for you in the long run anyway.
2. Don't get caught up trying to create the perfect system. Very related to #1. Trying to make the perfect system generally has the effect of making me want to spend $. No system is perfect, but there are systems that work. Like I've said before, if you see a problem, think about how to fix it. Sometimes it's as easy as providing a trash can in the right spot, grouping the right things together, or moving something so that you have easier access. And sometimes it's just accepting that you have to change your habits (hard!).
3. Get rid of stuff. Less to organize! I recently made a goal to get rid of 100 things. This is something I plan to do regularly. Along with that, don't buy new things. I recently read that if you are contemplating buying a (non-perishable) item, put it on a list and wait a designated period of time: two weeks, a month, whatever. If at the end of that time, you still want/need it, buy it.* I find delayed gratification so hard, but it does help a lot with clutter.
4. Use "trash" to organize.** Food comes in great containers. If all you have are oatmeal containers, cardboard boxes from cereal boxes, fruit snacks, peanut butter jars, strawberry baskets, mayonnaise jars, peanut containers, empty spice jars, even boxes of soda, then use those. There are lots of ways to dress them up, if you want.*** Baby wipe containers are also quite amazing--ask friends if you don't buy wipes yourself. I've seen great things done with paper towel rolls--and toilet paper rolls, but that grosses some people out.
5. Use what you have already.**** You've probably bought baskets or plastic containers already. As you organize, you'll find you get rid of things (see #3) or find new systems. A lot of shifting will occur and you can reuse those old containers.
6. To help with costs, go second-hand. Thrift stores and garage sales can be great for finding containers (the flower vase in the picture came from a garage sale). Canning jars are often easy to find and make pretty good storage containers; also, muffin tins. Sites like Craig's list can be great sources for free cardboard boxes people are looking to ditch after they move. This can work great for some things (the free section even has furniture if you are looking for bigger storage solutions--it doesn't have to be pretty--think basement or garage and hide it--and even if it's ugly for a while, if it's free, you won't feel like you wasted money by buying a cheap temporary option). Even cups or bowls you don't use much can make great storage containers.
7. Hit up your friends. Trade around. Find an organizing buddy and see if you might have things they can you use and vice versa. When I told my friend Natalie about my project, she said she might have some things I could use--funnily enough, I just realized she gave me those jars that appear in the picture above! 
8. Another cheap source is the dollar store or bargain stores (although I think this can add up quickly if you're not careful and sometimes you don't get much for your money. Caution.)
9. Make your own storage.***** There are great tutorials out there for sewing your own fabric boxes, and if you use fabric you already have on hand, it doesn't have to be too much out of pocket. Or use the $4 bed sheets from Walmart for the fabric to get a more uniform look. I've even seen sturdy baskets woven out of paper.
10. Make your own cleaning supplies. This isn't really about organization, but it will save you tons of money, and when things are clean, you want to keep them organized. There are a few products that I really love that I still buy, but for tons of things, I make my own. There are dozen of recipes out there, and I will probably do a post on my favorites at some point.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

UFO, I'm coming for you.

Over the past three weeks, I've been working on my unfinished objects. I'm killing them off, one by one. 13 out of 41 are done (although I don't thing everything in my unfinished box is on that list--I may need to do a little revising--still it's close enough).

Some of them have turned out cute. Some of them, not as cute. But, the most important part of this process is that they are done and I can either give them away (even if it's to the thrift store) or start using them or realizing that I'm not going to use them. Such is the way of the things I make. I'm pretty sure that Aubrey does not like the dress I finished for her.

Anyway, here's the list as it looks so far.

Spray paint frames
Tree tote bag
Pettycoat skirt
Ampersand
Yellow rosette pillow
Patches on jeans
Long blue tank refashion
Box purse
Let out Citrus halter
Sew pom pom on poncho
Crochet tan bag
Blue and brown crochet hoodie
White floaty scarf
Pink shirt refashion
Wrap around vest refashion
Crochet fingerless gloves
Repair pink and grey hair flower
Hexagon quilt
Thanksgiving wall hanging
Rehang crochet butterfly in kitchen
Garden quilt
Grandkid silhouettes
Gold sweater
Yellow flower/pink flower/pink felted flower/purple headband/pink cuff
Curtains
Green knitted buckets
Painted linen skirt
Blue serving stand
Braided rug
Mom's messenger bag
Santa Claus wall hanging
Repair grey and pink hair flower
Grandma Jensen quilt--blues and purples
Crochet beaded bag
Butterfly embroidery
Wool scarf
Cross stitch Noah's Ark
Blue and Pink diamond quilt
Orange and green diamond quilt
Mom's Christmas present albums
Bag embroidery

Now to the good stuff. Pictures.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Let's Thrift!

I came across this iPhone wallpaper and fell in love!

Let's Thrift

Dang, so cute! One of those things that when I see it, I really, really wish I had designed it. I may not have designed it, but I certainly have been doing as it suggests lately. I've been picking up little treasures at garage sales, antique stores and thrift stores everywhere. (Saver's in a favorite.)

The other day I looked down at my outfit and realized my shoes, pants and shirt were from thrift stores, my bracelet was costume jewelry from an antique store and I'd made my scarf. Maybe I need to start taking photos of my outfits occasionally and sharing.

Because I have soooo much fashion sense (that was dripping with sarcasm). But, I have had some fun trying to be more playful and daring lately.

Anyway, this post is all about what I've bought lately. Some of these still need some major makeovers. Some of them are pretty as they are right now.

This green vase was $5 at the nearby antique mall. I adore its shape! It's now hanging out on my kitchen shelves.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Flying Birds

I've crossed off a few more things from my UFO list! I'm determined to finish that list this summer. I realized the oldest thing on there is a cross stitch I started back before I was married, about 11 years ago. 11 years (that's a little over 1/3 of my life). I guess I should just be happy there aren't older objects sitting about. The cross stitch is actually all finished, but it's never been framed; it's been sitting in a box for 11 years. I think I'm going to make a pillow out of it.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with my post today! I hung up some art in the corner of my bedroom where my chair sits.

I happened to see this tray by Eskil Design on Young House Love somewhere in the advertising sections and was very attracted to the graphic elements of the trees, clouds and birds. I designed something highly inspired by it (ok, I nearly copied it--although I went off memory and tried not too look at it and also put my own spin on it).

The tray:

  My version:

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Project Progress: Kitchen Update Week 7

I'm seeing the wisdom in having all the money you need for a makeover beforehand.

Our AC broke a little while ago. While we could cover the repairs and make it through just fine, it does mean my kitchen makeover is experiencing a little involuntary hiccuping (fun fact about me: I oink when I hiccup. I cannot make it stop, and it's loud. People think I'm faking. I'm not. Xander tells me to knock it off every time I oink. David thinks it's hilarious. I try to avoid public places when I get a case of the hiccups. I guess this is one more nail in the coffin of my dream of being thought of as Aubrey Hepburn's little sister. Damn).

So, this week I had to do something completely free. A little bit ago, Natalie gave me a roll of wallpaper she picked up at DI (a local thrift store) for something like two dollars. When she found it, she knew it had to come over to my house to live.

I'd been planning on doing a fun print of wrapping paper or some such thing for drawer liners. My liners were old, yucky contact paper that wasn't really cut to size very well. Not what I want to see when I open the drawers.

I don't think that picture reflects how bad there were. They weren't gross, just old and starting to crack a bit, and generally scuffed up with some stain splatters from my recent refinish. In other words, you probably wouldn't gag when you opened them, but it was worth taking some time to polish them up.

So, I peeled up what I could. I wasn't going to bother getting it all up, because the wallpaper was pretty thick. I did make sure that anything going up the sides of the drawers was removed and the peeled parts were mostly flush with the bottom of the drawer.

Then, I cut my wallpaper to size, and gave it a quick bath in the sink. This brought back a lot of childhood memories of "helping" my mom to hang wallpaper in our home. Lots and lots of wallpaper. She was super good at it. I'm actually secretly pleased to see wallpaper back in fashion, because it can be so beautiful in the right places with the right print.

My kitchen is currently a disaster area. I bought some new cooking gear for camping, and it exploded in my kitchen. Plus, I'm chronically unable to be neat perpetually while working on a project. Stuff just goes everywhere.

So, once I wet it, I put the even (read: side not cut with scissors) side against the side of the drawer. Then I used a washcloth to help it to the edges and corners.

Then I creased it and folded it over. Not too easy with the corners, but I managed. Then I peeled it up a little bit, enough to trim my crease with a pair of scissors. A little more smoothing later, and my drawer was lined.

When I was working on this drawer, there were a lot of people in my kitchen making themselves lunch. I love how David is close enough to come home most days. He's cutting the kids' sandwiches into dinosaur shapes there in the background.

I'm going to put a clear coat of Mod Podge on it to make it more durable. It's so cheerful when I open the drawers.

I love how they look all together.

After looking at that photo in Photoshop for a while, I just had to turn it upside down so the drawers look more like a cake.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: Cupcake Towers

I saw these adorable cupcake stands ages ago (ages ago in Kara time translates to a few months ago). I've been collecting plates ever since. I had the worst luck in finding the appropriate candlesticks, so I ended up using cups mostly, plus one vase, and a 5-minute epoxy.

We used two of them the other day for family party, and they worked great. We had M&Ms in the top bowls, cookies around the sides and donuts and peanut butter bars on the bottom. They could also work great for cupcakes, or even veggies and dip. I'm sure we'll be using them a lot.

I picked up the plates and bowl for the blue ones from Walmart on clearance, and they were $1.50 each, with the glass coming from the dollar store. Total cost was $5.50.

These plates came from Savers for $1 each, and the glass from the dollar store. Total cost was $3.

These plates and the glass also from Walmart on clearance at $1 each, for a total cost of $3.

I think this is my favorite. The everything came from Savers. The plates were a dollar each, as was the vase and the little metal cup on top, for a total cost of $4.

The 5 minute epoxy was about $4. I also used it for something else, so I'm calling it an average of $4 per cupcake stand. That's a whole lotta cute for $4.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Project Progress: Kitchen Update Week 6

When I hung my shelves, I left plenty of room underneath for a gallery style collection of artwork. I've already posted a lot of it, like my silhouette frames, my crochet butterfly, and my kitchen message center.

I started collecting larger frames for this a while ago. I bought most of them at Savers or at Dollar Tree. I didn't pay more than $5 for any of them, and I got most of them for a dollar.

When I started to do this, I first put all the frames on the floor, trying to get a good arrangement. After a little tweaking, I had this arrangement:

Yeah, some of what are in those frames are scary, from the evil looking bears on the far left, to the sappy motivational poster on the far right, and those 80s geese prints (one you can't see because of the glare, but completely not my style).

I immediately started plugging in digitally some of the artwork I wanted to use:

Already, I'm feeling better about this.

I spent the better part of two days spray painting these. Of course, I didn't have to sit outside and watch the paint dry, thank goodness. That's so boring, they coined a cliche about it.

After that, I traced them on leftover paper we used to wrap the breakables in, and put them up on my wall with painter's tape. I also put up some of the ones I knew were at key points and not moving anywhere. I used command strips for these, the picture hanging ones. They are expensive, but I love them for projects like this, because they tend to hang much straighter than regular nails and you can tweak them a little bit, or even move them completely if you have some adhesive refills. And my kids don't knock them off the wall when they go by. Usually.

Once I got up the paper, I realized that I needed to make the whole thing a rectangle, and not have the variation in the bottom line, because it was looking messy and busy. It reads much more as a single unit now.

Then I started plugging in my digital images again (how amazing are digital cameras and Photoshop? We live in an age of wonders--there should be a song about that, because, seriously, I feel like breaking into song right now.).

And after a lot more tweaking, and a lot more making of art, my wall is currently looking like this:

Still a few things to do, but it's shaping up nicely.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Garage Sale and Thrift Store Finds

We had a great Saturday. We got up, puttered around the house a bit, then decided to go yard saling (is that really how you would write that? looks weird, but that's what we say when we go. . .) We hit only three or four, but found some great finds. We got Maxton a bike that is a better fit for him, although still a bit on the large size, because both Xander and Maxton are riding their bikes without training wheels now, which is pretty darn fabulous.

We also went to a free sale that a church was hosting. It was really weird to just walk in a take whatever you felt like.

I got this purse, which I think is so fun. I might end up dressing it up a bit. Wouldn't it be so cute with some flowers of some kind somewhere? How's that for vague?

I think it's smiling at me.

And I picked up this magazine rack. I have plans to dress it up a bit and then hang it by the kitchen table for coloring books and my morning reading. I love it's low profile.

I also got this candelabra for $3. It still has tags on it. I looked around at Shopko and saw a similar one for $40!

I got a frame for $1 at that sale too, but I didn't get pictures of it. Rest assured, you will see it eventually.

Then, later that day, we decided to walk down the main street of our new town to check out the shops and the park. There were a lot of fun shops, including an antique store, a cake decorating shop (score! that will probably come in handy in a few weeks when I make Aubriana's 3rd birthday cake--sniff sniff), a paperback book exchange, and a new thrift store.

It's just a little place, but I managed to walk away with some things anyway.

I got this pitcher for $5. It's calling out for me to make lemonade in it. Maybe someday this cruddy spring weather will turn into a day perfect for lemonade. Saturday was beautiful. Today it is cold and raining.

This tray for $4 (perfect for after school snacks).

And this green glass vase for $2. I have no idea how old it is, but similar ones in the antique shop were more like $15-20. Age is less important to me than the look and I love this look.

Anyway, we had a great time exploring our new town. I'm working on a cute new digi kit, but it's taking so long because it's turning out to be a large kit and my focus has been on doing things for the house. Hopefully I'll get it done for next week.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Tutorial: Alphabet Frame Makeover

I am working on decorating my kitchen.

Step one was my painted laminate countertops. Step two was hanging some shelves, which I'm going to show you later this week. Step three is hanging art. I've been having a blast making up art in my kitchen colors, which are teal, olive green and mustard yellow.

This was one project I recently finished. I'm not sure where they are going to hang just yet (hence the pictures on my kitchen table), but I love the graphic feel of it.

This is a fairly easy project that makes a big impact. I can't take credit for the idea. I saw a fabulous chair in a magazine that inspired the frames.

Ok, for this project, you are going to need:
Flat Frames
Spray Paint
Mod Podge or craft glue or hot glue (maybe I should just say adhesive?)
Chipboard alphabets
Craft knife

Here are my frames before I started. I was thrilled to find three matching frames at Savers last time I went. They are from IKEA and were $.99 each. I don't think IKEA sells these anymore, but my guess is I probably didn't save all that much money, but I did save an hour trip, so there's that.

Ok, onto the steps:

Step 1:
Remove glass from frames. Put metal tabs or staples back into place.

Step 2: Start gluing on chipboard letters. This is a great time to use up the last of some alphabets you already had. I think it would look awesome with numbers, as I always have numbers left over. Chipboard alphas aren't too expensive, and I bet you could do three frames with one of a larger size, if you needed to buy them new.

Step 3: Once your chipboard is all glued down, turn the frame over and trim with a craft knife. Do lots of shallow cuts for a cleaner cut, and it's less likely your alphabets pieces will come off.

Step 4: Sand down the edges and the tops of any really glossy letters. Also, make sure there aren't any glue drips or anything else that will mar the look of your finished piece. I freely admit I had some trouble with this. Don't look too closely.

Step 5: Prime your frames, then do light coats of spray paint to cover the chipboard. Let dry between coats.

Step 6: Clean your glass and put artwork in your new frames. I designed these prints just for my kitchen.

See, pretty simple and I such a fun look! Maybe someday I will do a chair. . .

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The Persimmon Perch

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.